Mumford & Sons, Dolans Limerick 16/03/2011 Review

My first listen to Mumford & Sons was thanks to hearing little lion man online somewhere and instantly liked it, picked up a copy of Sigh no More at that time, gave it a few listens enjoyed it but never really returned to it that often and then they exploded on the scene. It was hard to listen to radio and not hear mumford everywhere you went, Kinda put me off the band due to the constant bombardment of the songs and left me putting the album on the shelf to gather dust. Everyone young and old loved them and everyone seemed to be their biggest fan, it was quite surreal which I'm sure it was for the band too. The band toured non stop since the release and big outdoor festivals was the order of the day, This new Scottish/Irish tour is typical of a band who are sick of playing to thousands and want to reconnect with the fans, As they said themselves : “We’re focusing on making another album this year so we’ve decided to do a tour where we can get up close with people and road test some new song ideas. We wrote the first album by trying to play new songs live as much as we could – it’s a really helpful way to get to know a song, and to see if it has the legs that it needs to go on an album. It’s hard to tell sometimes when you’re in a small rehearsal room in Wandsworth. “We also love touring Scotland and Ireland, going back to our Celtic routes, and wanted to take the chance to play some beautiful smaller towns that often get ignored on the more traditional touring routes. We figured that playing smaller shows would take us back to the beginning of our touring lives again.” I guess after playing at the Brits and the Grammys, Limerick was the obvious next stop. Dolans was perfect as it holds the bones of 300 and perfect for an intimate gig. The ticket scramble was truly a nightmare for all. A presale on the mumford & sons site really affected the ticketmaster sale date, with I think had less than ten tickets being sold on the day. There were alot of angry fans after this presale and I can see why, Minutes after the ticketmaster farce sale they started to appear on ebay and the like for triple the cost. I thankfully secured tickets 2 days before the gig but if I told you where I would have to kill you. I was very giddy for the two days as you would imagine, Its not often you get the likes of a major band that would sell out the 02 in dublin playing the warehouse. It was certainly to be one of the local gigs of the year, One thing I was really looking forward to was the crazy crowd. Being off work the next day, thanks to St.Patricks day gave it that added bonus too. Albatros warmed the crowd up nicely but then there was a massive gap before the Mumford & Sons showed up. The crowd went suitably bonkers when they finally arrived on stage. They played a mish mash of new and old songs which they constantly apologised to the crowd for having to put up with the new stuff. The new songs sound great very toned down compared to "Sigh no More" I thought but looking forward to hearing the finished album. The acoustic version of "Timshel" was excellent as you can hear on the video below, Of coarse the highlights were Little Lion Man and The Cave ,when the crowd were in fine voice. The best part of the evening was when two of the lads from the band came out for the encore and said they were going to play a local song and sang "Fuck Your Honda Civic" and the crowd yelling back "Ive a horse outside!!!!", The rubberbandits I'm sure would be proud of that. They put on a great show and it was amazing to have them playing in Limerick, I doubt they will be back to such a small venue in the future but you never know they might. They hung around after the gig in the bar which was nice and it was cool to meet them, Cheers for a great gig! Setlist: Below Awake Nothing Roll Away WBP Hopeless Timshel I Will Wait Lover After The Storm Love Was Kind Little Lion Man Dust Bowl Encore: Whispers Cave